It has been a while…

Hi guys and gals,

So as you can probably tell from the title it has been a while since I made my last blog post…over a month in fact! I would apologise for this but life has been getting in the way recently and I just haven’t had the time to sit down and actually put (digital) pen to paper.

At the end of the day my hobby is just what it is…a hobby and unfortunately other priorities do come first sometimes!

So what have I been up to hobby wise over the past month or so? Well I thought I could go through a couple of things which I can expand on at a later date.

Building more Primaris Marines!

Prepping models for painting

Reading some more Horus Heresy novels

40k Battle Reports

What has been on the hobby table?

So since we last spoke a number of different units have been on my building table and I have managed to make quite some headway with them!

I have managed to build:

Primaris Chaplain

I love this model, I think he looks really cool, the only thing I am a bit disappointed by is the crozius, compared to old crozius’ it just seems a bit flimsy. However I don’t know if any of you have seen the conversion someone has done online with two pistols out but that looks awesome!

Primaris Apothecary

Again another beautiful model, again I much prefer the version with the helmet rather than without but I have always preferred that across the Space Marine range!

Primaris Repulsor

Now this was a big old model to put together and took a fair while to do so! It didn’t help that I was trying to find a way to magnetise the main weapons so that I could swap out the Las Talon with the Heavy Gatling Cannon and the Twin Heavy Bolters with the Twin Lascannons. I did manage to do this as you can see in the pictures below. However although I magnetised the Heavy Bolters and Lascannons (a bit wonky which is frustrating but I may fix this at a later date), for the main weapon it is actually easier to just not glue the bottom piece of the turret as you can then just swap the weapons out rather than having to cut pieces and rely on magnets. Hopefully you can see what I mean in the pictures below.

Primaris Reivers

I managed to put together 6 (2 set of 3) snap fit Reivers as well, they only come in the 3 poses but they had not released the big box at the time of purchase. I still have another 3 sitting around but I am debating selling them to fund the multi-pose box in the future.

Primaris Aggressors

I got a squad of these guys and again I have magnetised the gauntlets so they can be swapped for the boltstorm gauntlets or the flamestorm gauntlets. It was easier (and looked better) just to glue the fragstorm launchers onto their shoulders due to the nature of the pieces I was working with but that is not really a problem as I don’t play anyone currently who would have an issue with that anyway (as much as I try to play WYSIWYG).

Primaris Repulsor

Primaris Repulsor

Primaris Repulsor

Primaris Apothecary

Primaris Aggressors

Primaris Chaplain

So what have I got left on the building table at the moment? Well currently I have one set of citadel trees (exciting I know!), another box of snap fit Reivers (which as I said I’m not sure whether I will be keeping or not) and 1 more Sentinel for my Genestealer Cult (which I have put off building as I will need to magnetise all the weapons…).

What’s on the painting table?

Well currently I have not managed to get anything painted for a while…(Boo!!!) but I have managed to prime some models including 1 squad of 5 Intercessors and the Goblins and Skaven Deathrunners from Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower as it will be nice to have some painted villains on the table when I get another game in!

I am hoping to crack on with the Intercessors this week and use the goblins as something to paint in between layers as I plan on keeping them quite simple!

What’s on the bookshelf?

I sense a theme this week…! I am currently reading Legacies of Betrayal, an anthology of short stories from the Horus Heresy which I am quite enjoying as I can often read a whole story before bed!

However I have just completed the book before it, The Damnation of Pythos. I have to say I was a little disappointed with this book. I have enjoyed most of the Horus Heresy series so far (if I hadn’t I wouldn’t be 30 or so books in!!!). Apart from the odd novel like the Dark Angels books most have been good or excellent reads.

The Damnation of Pythos just felt like a bit of a nothing/filler book without much substance. I won’t spoil any plot for those who do want to read it as I imagine there are many completionists like me out there! However overall I just felt like the story didn’t go anywhere and the ending felt a bit of a damp squib. It is based around the story of some of the remaining members of the Shattered Legions and their travels to the planet Pythos and what they encounter. I felt that the main protagonists were a bit weak in character and although if you have read the short story Veritas Ferrum (found in Legacies of Betrayal) then you have briefly met them before their character just felt a bit one sided and never really developed any further.

But don’t let that stop you from reading it and making your own conclusions as they may be wildly different!

What’s on the gaming table?

So I have had a couple of battle reports playing with my Primaris Marines over the last few weeks.

Less knowledgeable on the specifics of my opponents list so bear with me.

Deathwatch + Allies 2000pts – Battallion + High Command

Deathwatch Battalion

Watchmaster

Librarian – Terminator Armour

Librarian

Kill Team

Kill Team

Kill Team

Razorback – Lascannons

Razorback – Lascannons

Corvus Blackstar

Imperial Agents High Command

Primaris Psyker

Primaris Psyker

Primaris Psyker

Space Marine Unbound

5 x Intercessor

Redemptor – Macro Plasma Incinerator, Gatling Cannon, Frag Launchers

The mission was 6 objectives each work 2 vps, then one is randomly selected and worth 4 vps, another randomly selected to be worth 1 vp. Unfortunately for me the objective in Chris’ deployment zone ended up being worth 4 vp so it was always going to be a struggle.

The battle swung backwards and forwards before we had to call time on the match a turn early as it was already pushing 10:30pm!

By the end of the battle I had left:

Captain, lieutenant, librarian, a handful of intercessors, my Redemptor undamaged, Repulsor with a few wounds off it and 1 Inceptor.

Chris had his Watch Master, 2 Intercessors, 1 Razorback down a few wounds, his Redemptor down a few wounds, his Terminator Librarian and 2 Primaris Psykers. We ended at the end of my turn 4 so we still had a round and a half to go but the game was very much in the balance but I think it was swinging to a victory for Chris, he was sitting on 3 objectives for a total of 7 points whereas I had 2 for 4 points and I had first blood.

If Chris could wreck my Repulsor which was definitely doable, I would have had very little to hit him with in my final turn so I think I would have struggled to pick out the win unless he rolled poorly and I rolled well.

Conclusions from the battle:

Primaris marines are surprisingly tough to kill, each having 2 wounds means getting through a squad of 5/6 in cover is no mean feat. Compared to Deathwatch who are very expensive per model but go down much more easily. Hellblasters are awesome and so is the Repulsor, both did a lot of damage and paid for themselves, the Hellblasters in particular taking down the Deathwatch flyer in 1 round by themselves!

I was a bit disappointed with the Reivers and Redemptor, both of whom did not achieve much. I think the thing I keep forgetting with the Redemptor is the comparatively short range of most of it’s weapons, I think I deploy it too conservatively so it takes 2 turns to get in range.

I had another game this week of 1000pts of Primaris Marines against Tom who played 1000pts of Space Marines with 3, yes 3 Vindicators…but I think I will leave that until next time.

Next time on Miniature Minded….

I’m hoping to have another post much sooner rather than later this time. As I said I will cover the battle report I had with Tom, again sorry for the lack of pictures, I forgot to take any this time around.

Hopefully I will also have some Intercessors and goblins painted up that I can show you and perhaps have a quick run through what I think of either the new Space Marine Codex, Adeptus Mechanicus Codex, or White Dwarf but we will have to wait and see!

Thanks for reading and see you next time! If there is anything you want to see more/less of let me know in the comments section below!